According to Gartner, the use of cloud computing is growing. By 2016 this growth will increase to become the bulk of new IT spend, and by the end of 2017 nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments.

The opportunity for you to develop and administer unique business solutions for your customers is now, and chances are you’re evaluating the options in order to decide what the best platform is for your customers. As you look to partner with technology companies to develop your public and hybrid cloud strategy and service offerings, here are five things to look for in a partner program:

1.      Technical capability: Build your cloud services on industry-leading technology with products available to help you offer multiple “as a service” offerings, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and mobility solutions such as desktop as a service (DaaS.)

2.      Subscription based model with no start-up costs: When adding a recurring revenue model to your portfolio, you want to ensure that your partner program aligns with how you bill your customers. Look for programs with a consumption-based model and no upfront costs so that you can pay as you go and pay as you grow.

3.      Technical support: Confirm the support you receive from your partner includes 24×7 coverage, fast response times for critical issues, product updates and upgrades, and online access to documentation and discussion forums.

4.      Marketing and sales assistance: Look for program benefits such as a partner portal, partner directory listing, air cover marketing, marketing development funds (MDF), webinars, press release support, demand generation and sales guides.

5.      Technical and sales training: You want a top-notch sales team, so check to make sure you’ll have access to online training, product certification and company conferences.

The VMware vCloud Air Network Program (formerly called the VMware Service Provider Program or VSPP) allows companies to build their hosting portfolios on VMware infrastructure with an OpEx friendly model and world-class partner benefits. By offering VMware-based cloud services, VMware vCloud Air Network Service Providers can provide public and hybrid cloud services that quickly and seamlessly extend a customer’s private data center into the cloud using the same VMware products and tools used on premise by more than 500,000 customers across the globe.

VMware vCloud Air Network Service Providers differentiate their services in a number of ways: geographic data center locations, vertical market expertise (services targeting industries such as financial services, retail and health care), compliance (clouds focused on PCI, ISO, HIPPA, FISMA, FEDRAMP and more) and managed services expertise (such as cloud management, monitoring and migrations).

Visit vcloudproviders.vmware.com to see how customers are finding VMware vCloud Air Network Service Providers, and join the program to get your cloud services listed there. It’s just one benefit of the VMware vCloud Air Network Program–which also offers all five things listed above!

Melissa Ross is senior marketing manager, VMware vCloud Air Network Program. Guest blogs such as this one are published monthly and are part of Talkin’ Cloud’s annual platinum sponsorship.